Freeman Wills Crofts
Encyclopedia
Freeman Wills Crofts was an Irish
mystery
author
, one of the 'Big Four' of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction
.
. His father had the same name as he, Freeman Wills Crofts, and was a surgeon-lieutenant in the Army Medical Service, but he died of fever in Honduras
before the young Freeman Wills Crofts was born. His mother, née Celia Frances Wise, re-married the Venerable Jonathan Harding, Vicar of Gilford
, County Down
, and Archdeacon
of Dromore
, and Crofts was brought up in the Gilford vicarage. He attended Methodist College
and Campbell College
in Belfast
. In 1912 he married Mary Bellas Canning, daughter of the manager of a local bank in Coleraine
.
, who was chief engineer of the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway. In 1899 Crofts was appointed Junior Assistant on the construction of the Londonderry and Strabane Extension of the Donegal Railway. In 1900 he became District Engineer at Coleraine for the L.M.S.
Northern Counties Committee
at a salary of £100pa, living at 11 Lodge Road in the town. In 1922 Crofts was promoted to Chief Assistant Engineer of the railway, based in Belfast. He lived at 'Grianon' in Jordanstown, a quiet village some 6 miles north of Belfast, where it was convenient for Crofts to travel by train each day to the railway's offices at York Road. One of the projects he worked on was the design of the 'Bleach Green Viaduct' in Whiteabbey, close to his Jordanstown home. This was a significant 10 arch reinforced concrete viaduct approved in 1927 and completed in 1934. It carried a new loop line which eliminated the need for trains between Belfast and the north west to reverse at Greenisland. Croft continued his engineering career until 1929. In his last task as an engineer, he was commissioned by the Government of Northern Ireland to chair an inquiry into the Bann and Lough Neagh Drainage Scheme.
He is best remembered for his favourite detective, Inspector Joseph French, who was introduced in his fifth book, Inspector French's Greatest Case (1924). Inspector French always set about unravelling each of the mysteries presented him in a workmanlike, exacting manner - this approach set him apart from most other fictional sleuths.
In 1929, he abandoned his railway engineering career and became a full-time writer. He settled in the village of Blackheath
, near Guildford
, in Surrey, and a number of his books are set in the Guildford area, including The Hog's Back
Mystery (1933) and Crime at Guildford (1935). Many of his stories have a railway theme, and his particular interest in the apparently unbreakable alibi often focussed on the intricacies of railway timetables. At the end of his life, he and his wife moved to Worthing
, Sussex in 1953, where they lived until his death in 1957, the year in which his last book was published.
Freeman Wills Crofts also wrote one religious book, The Four Gospels in One Story, several short stories, and short plays for the BBC
.
, Ireland
, bank manager. They had no children.
He was a member, with Dorothy L. Sayers
and Agatha Christie
, of the Detection Club
which met in Gerrard Street.
In 1939 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
.
Crofts was not only a railway engineer and writer, but also an accomplished musician. He was organist and choirmaster in Killowen Parish Church, Coleraine, St Patrick's Church, Jordanstown and the parish church of St Martin's in Blackheath.
. Agatha Christie included parodies of Inspector French alongside Sherlock Holmes
and her own Hercule Poirot
in Partners in Crime (1929).
Raymond Chandler
described him as "the soundest builder of them all when he doesn’t get too fancy" (in The Simple Art of Murder
). His attention to detail and his concentration on the mechanics of detection makes him the forerunner of the "police procedural" school of crime fiction.
However, it has also given rise to a suggestion of a certain lack of flair - Julian Symons
describing him as of "the humdrum school". This may explain why his name has not remained as familiar as other more colourful and imaginative Golden Age writers, although he had 15 books included in the Penguin Books
"green" series of the best detective novels and 36 of his books were in print in paperback in 2000.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
mystery
Mystery fiction
Mystery fiction is a loosely-defined term.1.It is often used as a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction— in other words a novel or short story in which a detective investigates and solves a crime mystery. Sometimes mystery books are nonfiction...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, one of the 'Big Four' of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction
Golden Age of Detective Fiction
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels produced by various authors, all following similar patterns and style.-Origins:Mademoiselle de Scudéri, by E.T.A...
.
Birth and education
Crofts was born at 26 Waterloo Road, Dublin, IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. His father had the same name as he, Freeman Wills Crofts, and was a surgeon-lieutenant in the Army Medical Service, but he died of fever in Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
before the young Freeman Wills Crofts was born. His mother, née Celia Frances Wise, re-married the Venerable Jonathan Harding, Vicar of Gilford
Gilford
Gilford is a village in County Down, Northern Ireland. The village sits on the River Bann between the towns of Banbridge, Tandragee and Portadown. It covers the townlands of Loughans, Ballymacanallen and Drumaran. It had a population of 1,573 people in the 2001 Census...
, County Down
County Down
-Cities:*Belfast *Newry -Large towns:*Dundonald*Newtownards*Bangor-Medium towns:...
, and Archdeacon
Archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...
of Dromore
Dromore
- Places :* Dromore, Ontario, Canada* Dromore , a crater in the Lunae Palus quadrangle of Mars- Other :* Bishop of Dromore, named for the town in County Down; the pre-Reformation antecedent of:** Roman Catholic Diocese of Dromore...
, and Crofts was brought up in the Gilford vicarage. He attended Methodist College
Methodist College
Methodist College may refer to:*Methodist University in North Carolina *Methodist College in Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong*Sha Tin Methodist College in Sha Tin, Hong Kong*Methodist College Belfast*Southern Methodist University...
and Campbell College
Campbell College
Campbell College is a Voluntary Grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The College educates boys from ages 11–18. It is one of the eight Northern Irish schools represented on the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and is a member of the Independent Schools Council.The school occupies...
in Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
. In 1912 he married Mary Bellas Canning, daughter of the manager of a local bank in Coleraine
Coleraine
Coleraine is a large town near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is northwest of Belfast and east of Derry, both of which are linked by major roads and railway connections...
.
Engineering career
In 1896, at the age of seventeen, Crofts was apprenticed to his maternal uncle, Berkeley Deane WiseBerkeley Deane Wise
Berkeley Deane Wise was an Irish civil engineer who made a significant impact on the development of railways and tourism, particularly in Northern Ireland.-Early years:...
, who was chief engineer of the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway. In 1899 Crofts was appointed Junior Assistant on the construction of the Londonderry and Strabane Extension of the Donegal Railway. In 1900 he became District Engineer at Coleraine for the L.M.S.
London, Midland and Scottish Railway
The London Midland and Scottish Railway was a British railway company. It was formed on 1 January 1923 under the Railways Act of 1921, which required the grouping of over 120 separate railway companies into just four...
Northern Counties Committee
Northern Counties Committee
The Northern Counties Committee was a railway that served the north-east of Ireland. It was built to Irish gauge but later acquired a number of narrow gauge lines...
at a salary of £100pa, living at 11 Lodge Road in the town. In 1922 Crofts was promoted to Chief Assistant Engineer of the railway, based in Belfast. He lived at 'Grianon' in Jordanstown, a quiet village some 6 miles north of Belfast, where it was convenient for Crofts to travel by train each day to the railway's offices at York Road. One of the projects he worked on was the design of the 'Bleach Green Viaduct' in Whiteabbey, close to his Jordanstown home. This was a significant 10 arch reinforced concrete viaduct approved in 1927 and completed in 1934. It carried a new loop line which eliminated the need for trains between Belfast and the north west to reverse at Greenisland. Croft continued his engineering career until 1929. In his last task as an engineer, he was commissioned by the Government of Northern Ireland to chair an inquiry into the Bann and Lough Neagh Drainage Scheme.
Writing career
In 1919, during an absence from work due to a long illness, Crofts wrote his first novel, The Cask (1920), which established him as a new master of detective fiction. Crofts continued to write steadily, producing a book almost every year for thirty years, in addition to a number of short stories and plays.He is best remembered for his favourite detective, Inspector Joseph French, who was introduced in his fifth book, Inspector French's Greatest Case (1924). Inspector French always set about unravelling each of the mysteries presented him in a workmanlike, exacting manner - this approach set him apart from most other fictional sleuths.
In 1929, he abandoned his railway engineering career and became a full-time writer. He settled in the village of Blackheath
Blackheath, Surrey
Blackheath is a village in Surrey near Guildford, often called Blackheath Village in order to distinguish it from Blackheath in south east London.The settlement appears in the Domesday Book as Blacheatfeld...
, near Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...
, in Surrey, and a number of his books are set in the Guildford area, including The Hog's Back
Hog's Back
The Hog's Back is a part of the North Downs in Surrey, England, that lies between Farnham, Surrey in the west and Guildford in the east.-Name:Compared with the main part of the Downs to the east of it, it is a narrow elongated ridge, hence its name....
Mystery (1933) and Crime at Guildford (1935). Many of his stories have a railway theme, and his particular interest in the apparently unbreakable alibi often focussed on the intricacies of railway timetables. At the end of his life, he and his wife moved to Worthing
Worthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
, Sussex in 1953, where they lived until his death in 1957, the year in which his last book was published.
Freeman Wills Crofts also wrote one religious book, The Four Gospels in One Story, several short stories, and short plays for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.
Marriage, affiliations and other interests
In 1912 he wed Mary Bellas Canning, the daughter of John J.C. Canning of ColeraineColeraine
Coleraine is a large town near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is northwest of Belfast and east of Derry, both of which are linked by major roads and railway connections...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, bank manager. They had no children.
He was a member, with Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist. She was also a student of classical and modern languages...
and Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
, of the Detection Club
Detection Club
The Detection Club was formed in 1930 by a group of British mystery writers, including Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Freeman Wills Crofts, Arthur Morrison, John Rhode, Jessie Rickard, Baroness Emma Orczy, R. Austin Freeman, G.D.H. Cole, Margaret Cole, E.C. Bentley, and H.C. Bailey. Anthony...
which met in Gerrard Street.
In 1939 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
Royal Society of Arts
The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce is a British multi-disciplinary institution, based in London. The name Royal Society of Arts is frequently used for brevity...
.
Crofts was not only a railway engineer and writer, but also an accomplished musician. He was organist and choirmaster in Killowen Parish Church, Coleraine, St Patrick's Church, Jordanstown and the parish church of St Martin's in Blackheath.
Reputation
Crofts was esteemed, not only by his regular readers, but also by his fellow writers of the so-called Golden Age of Detective FictionGolden Age of Detective Fiction
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels produced by various authors, all following similar patterns and style.-Origins:Mademoiselle de Scudéri, by E.T.A...
. Agatha Christie included parodies of Inspector French alongside Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
and her own Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
in Partners in Crime (1929).
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
described him as "the soundest builder of them all when he doesn’t get too fancy" (in The Simple Art of Murder
The Simple Art of Murder
"The Simple Art of Murder" refers to both a critical essay and a collection of short stories written by hard-boiled detective fiction author Raymond Chandler. The essay was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in December 1944...
). His attention to detail and his concentration on the mechanics of detection makes him the forerunner of the "police procedural" school of crime fiction.
However, it has also given rise to a suggestion of a certain lack of flair - Julian Symons
Julian Symons
Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...
describing him as of "the humdrum school". This may explain why his name has not remained as familiar as other more colourful and imaginative Golden Age writers, although he had 15 books included in the Penguin Books
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...
"green" series of the best detective novels and 36 of his books were in print in paperback in 2000.
Novels
- The Cask (1920)
- The Ponson Case (1921)
- The Pit-Prop Syndicate (1922)
- The Groote Park Murder (1923)
- Inspector French's Greatest Case (1924)
- Inspector French and the Cheyne Mystery (1926) aka The Cheyne Mystery
- Inspector French and the Starvel TragedyInspector French and the Starvel TragedyInspector French and the Starvel Tragedy is a crime novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, featuring Inspector Joseph French of Scotland Yard.-Plot outline:Three people are burnt to death in Yorkshire...
(1927) aka The Starvel Hollow Tragedy - The Sea Mystery (1928)
- The Box Office Murders (1929) aka The Purple Sickle Murders
- Sir John Magill's Last Journey (1930)
- Mystery in the Channel (1931) aka Mystery in the English Channel
- Sudden Death (1932)
- Death on the Way (1932) aka Double Death
- The Hog's Back Mystery (1933) aka The Strange Case of Dr. Earle
- The 12:30 from Croydon (1934) aka Wilful and Premeditated
- Mystery on Southampton Water (1934) aka Crime on the Solent
- Crime at Guildford (1935) aka The Crime at Nornes
- The Loss of the 'Jane Vosper (1936)
- Man Overboard!Man Overboard!Man Overboard! is a detective novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, first published in 1936. It is the fifteenth novel in the Inspector French series. The book is set largely in Northern Ireland, and re-uses two of the characters from the earlier novel Sir John Magill's Last Journey which was set in the...
(1936) aka Cold-Blooded Murder - Found Floating (1937)
- The End of Andrew Harrison (1938) aka The Futile Alibi
- Antidote to Venom (1938)
- Fatal Venture (1939) aka Tragedy in the Hollow
- Golden Ashes (1940)
- James Tarrant, Adventurer (1941) aka Circumstantial Evidence
- The Losing Game (1941) aka A Losing Game
- Fear Comes to Chalfont (1942)
- The Affair at Little Wokeham (1943) aka Double Tragedy
- Enemy Unseen (1945)
- Death of a TrainDeath of a TrainDeath of a Train is a crime novel by Freeman Wills Crofts, published in 1946.-Synopsis:Set during World War II, a network of German secret agents plans to derail a train carrying vital war supplies. Due to a delay another train is derailed instead, the intended one then being diverted safely round...
(1946) - Silence for the Murderer (1949)
- French Strikes Oil (1951) aka Dark Journey
- Anything to Declare? (1957)
Short Story Collections
- Murderers Make Mistakes (1947)
- Many a Slip (1955)
- Mystery of the Sleeping Car Express and Other Stories (1956)
- "The Mystery of the Sleeping Car Express" (1921)
- "Mr Pemberton's Commission"
- "The Greuze" (Inspector French)
- "The Level Crossing" (1933)
- "East Wind" (Inspector French)
- "The Parcel"
- "The Motive Shows the Man"
- "The Affair at Saltover Priory" (Inspector French)
- "The Landing Ticket" (Inspector French)
- "The Raincoat" (Inspector French)
Anthologies containing stories by Freeman Wills Crofts
- Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror 2nd Series (1931)
- Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror 3rd Series (1934)
- The Mystery Book (1934)
- The Great Book of Thrillers (1935)
- Fifty Famous Detectives of Fiction (1983)
- The Scoop and Behind the ScreenThe Scoop and Behind The ScreenThe Scoop & Behind The Screen are both collaborative detective serials written by members of the Detection Club which were broadcast weekly by their authors on the BBC National Programme in 1930 and 1931 with the scripts then being published in The Listener within a week after broadcast...
(1983) (Originally published in The Listener (1931) and (1930), both written by members of The Detection Club) - Great Irish Detective Stories edited by Peter Haining (1993)
Lost Short Stories
These stories are known to have been published but no copies of the publications concerned are believed to exist today- "Nemesis", published in Round About [Guildford Round Table Christmas Annual, 1933]
- "Who Killed Cock Robin?", published in St Martin's Review [date unknown]
External links
- A complete bibliography
- complete text of The Pit Prop Syndicate from Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...